Back of the Net Disasters: Own Goal Tales of Woe

Scoring a brace is usually a good thing in football. However, it becomes a very bad thing when each of the goals you score is in the wrong net. Just ask Wout Faes of Leicester City, who put through his own net twice in the space of seven minutes against Liverpool earlier this season. That effort was enough to turn a 1-0 win into a 2-1 defeat and see Faes hitting the Football news headlines for all the wrong reasons.

For football fans and punters assessing the best new Betting offers, that unwanted double also felt like a pretty rare occurrence – few supporters were able to name a similarly prolific own-goal anti-hero off the top of their heads. All of which led us to take a trawl through the history books in search of the finest own-goal exponents of years gone by – leading to some pretty interesting findings:

Premier League Own Goal Superstars

Slightly surprisingly, Faes was not the first player to hit an own-goal double in the Premier League era. That dubious honour belongs to a certain Jamie Carragher, who made his own net bulge twice against bitter rivals Manchester United in 1999. 

Michael Proctor of Sunderland then achieved an unwanted double against Charlton in 2003, but possibly the best effort came from Jonathan Walters of Stoke City in a 2013 clash with Chelsea. 

Walters’ tale of woe began with a spectacular diving header own goal in the first half and continued when planting another firm header past his bemused keeper after the interval. Granted the opportunity to salvage some pride from the spot, Walters rounded off his afternoon by sending his penalty kick into orbit….one of those days when he perhaps should have stayed in bed!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUAgU9Tbp4Y&feature=emb_imp_woyt

Most Own Goals in a Single Game – 149

Yes, you read that correctly. There does indeed exist a match in the annals of football which featured an own goal once every 36 seconds on average! You might think that the only way to achieve such a ridiculous tally would be to storm straight towards your own goal from the kickoff and rifle the ball into the back of the net. 

And you would be right. This bizarre situation unfolded in the Madagascan Premier League in 2002. Needing to win against DSA Antananarivo, defending champions Stade Olympique de l’Emyrne (SOE) were held to a draw thanks to a highly controversial penalty decision – a result which ended the side’s chances of retaining the title. 

It was SOE’s next fixture against newly crowned champions AS Adema which saw the own goal chaos unfold. In a fit of petulance regarding the penalty decision, SOE immediately fired the ball into their own goal from the kickoff and proceeded to repeat this feat throughout the entire game. Final score AS Adema 149 – 0 SOE. 

Other than making an appearance in the record books, this performance achieved very little; AS Adema were still crowned champions, and the SOE manager was banned from football for four years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-WRWtkH8kM

Own Goal Perfect Hattrick – Meikayla Moore

Merely scoring a hat trick is the dream of many players. The more adventurous meanwhile aspire to achieve the perfect hat trick – one goal with the right foot, one goal with the left foot, and another with the head, representing something of a footballing Holy Grail. 

Liverpool Ladies New Zealand International, Meikayla Moore entered the exclusive perfect hat trick club on 20th February 2022, although not in the manner she would have wished, as all three of her strikes were in the wrong goal!

A night to forget for Moore, but she can at least take consolation in the fact she is not the only player to score a hattrick of OG’s. Another member of that club is Stan van den Buijs, who put through his own net for Germinal Ekeren in 1995. Not quite a perfect hat trick for Stan - anything but in fact, with his three strikes being the difference in a 3-2 defeat to Anderlecht.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksW4iJqEPPo

Chris Nicholl 2 – 2 Chris Nicholl

One of the most impressive single-game goalscoring exploits came back in 1976 when the match between Aston Villa and Leicester City turned into the Chris Nicholl show. The sides played out an entertaining 2-2 draw on the day, but there was just one name on the scoresheet as Chris Nicholl cancelled out his two own goals by scoring a brace at the right end of the pitch.

An impressive effort, but not the first time this feat had been achieved, with Sam Wynne of Oldham Athletic scoring twice at both ends in a clash with Manchester United in 1923.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qpo6aHvPBYo

Most Own Goals by a Single Player in the Premier League

It is former Manchester City defender Richard Dunne who has proved the most proficient at finding the back of his own net in the English top flight. During stints with Everton, Manchester City, Aston Villa and QPR, Dunne scored for the wrong team on no fewer than ten occasions. Not content with one record, Dunne’s tally of eight red cards also gives him a share of the lead with Patrick Vieira and Duncan Ferguson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp_QXugPyDM